5 Wild Facts About Memorial Park You Probably Didn’t Know

Memorial Park is one of El Paso's most beloved green spaces, a go-to spot for morning walks, tennis, and rose garden strolls. But this 32-acre park in the Manhattan Heights neighborhood has a past that is anything but ordinary. From vanished lakes to failed copper dreams, here is what the park is not telling you.

That Bridge In Memorial Park Used to Cross an Actual Lake

If you have ever walked through Memorial Park and noticed the old stone bridge that seems to go nowhere in particular, there is a reason it looks like it belongs over water. It does. In the 1920s, the park still had a lake and that bridge was built to cross it. The lake is long gone, but the bridge remained, now serving mostly as a backdrop for photos and a quiet monument to what the park used to look like.

El Paso Designed it to Be a "Forest in the Desert"

In 1918, city leaders envisioned establishing a park and a memorial to honor soldiers and sailors who served and died in World War I. In 1921, the city hired George Kessler, a well-known landscape architect, to begin plans for the park. He envisioned the park to be a "Forest in the Desert." That same year, El Paso began planting nearly 9,000 plants and trees on the original 38-acre site. In a city that averages about eight inches of rain a year, that was an ambitious vision, and one that largely came true.

Before Memorial Park, There Was a Copper Smelter

The Federal Copper Company operated a smelter in the area that would later become Manhattan Heights between June 9, 1899 and December 1, 1908. The copper company's smelter was demolished by 1912 to make way for a residential area. (Wikipedia) The company went bankrupt, the smelter came down, and the land was eventually transformed into one of El Paso's most scenic parks. Memorial Park stands on the location of that failed copper smelting facility, a fact commemorated by not one, but two plaques.

These El Paso Street Names Are a Dead Giveaway

Here is a little Easter egg hiding in plain sight. Reflecting the original use of the property, developers named the streets Federal, Copper, Silver, Gold and Bronze. Next time you are driving through the neighborhood, those street signs are basically a map of what used to be underground.

The Rose Garden Next Door Has Over 400 Types of Roses

Just steps from the park sits one of El Paso's most underrated attractions. The Municipal Rose Garden was opened in May 1959. The rose garden showcases over 430 varieties of roses and 1,500 individual rose bushes, representative of types that grow best in El Paso's desert climate. The garden has been maintained by El Paso Master Gardeners since 2007, who work as volunteers. It is open seasonally from March through November, and admission is free. (This last fact was not about Memorial Park but it's still fun!)

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